Poetic Kinetics 'Skynet' Takes Over Heisler Park

LAGUNA BEACH, CA —If you've walked in the area of Heisler Park recently, you may have spotted a rainbow of color streaking across the landscape. No, this is not a fogbow or a trick of the light.

According to a museum spokesperson, this is Laguna Art Museum's eighth annual installation of Art & Nature: a multidisciplinary exploration of art and how it engages with the natural world.

In collaboration with the City of Laguna Beach, the museum has commissioned a work of art for Art & Nature – a site-specific, multicolored, kinetic installation (a "Skynet") off Main Beach over Main Beach Park. Entitled Sunset Trace, it seamlessly weaves through the palm trees along the shoreline, traverses sections of the walkways and cliffs between the gazebo and Main Beach in a stunning, windburn display.

Sunset Trace is on view from November 5 through November 15.

Inspired by the graceful murmuration of birds flocking together or schools of fish coalescing and moving simultaneously, Patrick Shearn's signature Skynets are a constant reminder of nature moving around us.

If you glance, the installation appears to be floating in the sky.

Inconspicuously rigged transparent monofilament makes the undulating forms appear to "levitate in mid-air," a spokesperson tells Patch. Unique wind patterns give life to each section of the installation site, revealing unseen natural elements in unusual, dramatic ways.

Shearn is an LA-based artist specializing in larger-than-life, immersive public art installations.

"Shearn's signature kinetic sculptures, called Skynets, earned him international renown after the debut of Liquid Shard enamored the city of Los Angeles," the Laguna Beach Museum spokesperson said. "The installation transformed an underused public square in the heart of downtown into a bustling destination overnight."

Shearn has since brought Skynet installations to various locations in the U.S. and abroad, where viewers are invariably compelled to slow down and take time to follow the undulating movement of the artworks, which appear to hang in thin air.

Shearn gained expertise in animatronics, robotics, and visual effects from his 30-year tenure in the film industry. He was a creature maker and visual effects supervisor–which lends traction to a prolific career as creative director for his studio Poetic Kinetics.

Under Shearn's guiding vision, Poetic Kinetics has designed, fabricated, and implemented a wide range of projects that encourage audience participation–from interactive projection mapping and pyrotechnics to enormous mobile sculptures. Notably, Poetic Kinetics' projects engage the public through interactivity and reach viral notoriety on social media.

Laguna Beach, known for its artistic side, is a perfect location to juxtapose Art & Nature.

The Laguna Museum of Art feels this serves many purposes: to provide a festival of art and ideas for the community; to inspire artists; to find and develop connections between art and science; to raise awareness of environmental issues and to celebrate Laguna Beach as a center for the appreciation of all of the above.

The museum's executive director, Malcolm Warner, explains why Laguna Art Museum is the ideal organization to conceive, develop, and present the popular program.

"The theme of Art & Nature speaks particularly to the identity of Laguna Beach, which for over a hundred years has been a center for art, the appreciation of nature, and environmental awareness.," Warner said. "In 1929, when the Laguna Beach Art Association built an art gallery to show and sell their work, they chose a commanding location on the coastline close to the natural wonders they loved to paint. The present museum occupies the same site. There could be no more appropriate venue in which to explore the art-nature connection."

What do you think of the installation? Let us know in comments.

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